Make a stencil
Turn on JavaScript to draw the stencils.
Print at 100% (“actual size”) and measure the 1-inch square in the corner of the sheet. The dashed gray box around each design is the finished border or block, so you can check the fit against your quilt before you mark it. Download SVG saves the first page as a true-size file for a cutting machine, a drawing program or a longarm design program that reads SVG.
Sizing a border design
Measure the finished width of the border, from the seam to where the binding will sit (the binding covers about ¼ inch of the edge). Enter that as the border width; the design fills about 70 percent of it, leaving a margin on each side so the stitching doesn't crowd the seam.
The repeat length is how long one unit of the design is. The usual proportions are about 1.6 times the border width for the cable and the wave, and 0.8 times for the loops. To make the repeats come out even along a side, divide the finished length of the border by the usual repeat, round to a whole number, and divide again:
| Step | Example: 2 in cable border, 60 in side |
|---|---|
| Usual repeat = 1.6 × border width | 1.6 × 2 = 3.2 in |
| Repeats along the side = side ÷ repeat, rounded | 60 ÷ 3.2 = 18.75, so 19 repeats |
| Exact repeat = side ÷ repeats | 60 ÷ 19 = 3.16 in; enter 3.125 (3⅛) |
A repeat within an eighth of an inch is close enough; spread the difference over the side by easing a few repeats as you mark. If the corner turns are part of the plan, measure the side between the corner squares, not the whole quilt.
How the corner turn works
The corner page draws the border coming up one side, turning a quarter circle across the corner square, and heading off along the next side, all as one line. Both arms hold whole repeats, and the repeats in the turn are stretched or squeezed a little so they fit the curve exactly. The turn's radius is 0.85 times the border width, centered just inside the quilt, so the inside of the design stays in the border and the outer corner is left open. Mark the corners first, then fill the sides between them with the strip page.
Using printed stencils
On light fabric, the simplest way is to trace. Tape the printout under the quilt top on a light box or a sunny window and trace with a water-soluble marking pen or a fine chalk pencil. Test the marker on a scrap first and remove the marks the way the maker says before you press, since heat can set some of them.
On dark or busy fabric, stitch through paper instead. Print on tear-away stabilizer or thin paper, pin it to the basted quilt and quilt right through the printed line. Shorten the stitch a little so the paper tears away cleanly. Print on the fine line setting so the stitching covers it. Pull the paper off the stitches carefully, supporting them with a fingertip, and use tweezers for the bits trapped at crossings.
If you'll mark the same design on many quilts, make a reusable stencil. Lay template plastic over the printout and cut narrow slots along the line with a double-blade craft knife, leaving bridges every inch so the plastic holds together. Mark through the slots with a pounce pad or a marking pencil.
A walking foot handles the gentle curves of the cable and the wave. The rest have tighter curves, which are easier with free-motion quilting; see free-motion quilting for beginners, and for straighter designs, straight-line machine quilting. All of them can be hand quilted too; the hand quilting guide covers the stitch.
About each design
| Design | How it's drawn | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Twisted cable | Two ribbons that cross at every half repeat. The line runs out along one edge of each ribbon and back along the other, four passes in all. | Borders and sashing on traditional quilts |
| Ribbon wave | One wavy ribbon, out along one edge and back along the other | Narrow borders and binding-edge borders |
| Loop-de-loop | One line that rolls forward in loops along the inner edge | Children's quilts, quick borders |
| Feather plume | A double spine with rounded plumes on both sides, tapering at the tip | Wide borders, the center of a plain block |
| Feather wreath | The same plumes running around a circle, on the inside and the outside | Plain setting squares, the center of a medallion |
| Five-point star | A five-point star drawn in one stroke, with the pentagon in its middle | Patriotic quilts, alternate blocks in a star quilt |
| Five-petal flower | Five petals from one curve, all meeting in the middle | Plain blocks, cornerstones |
| Rounded meander | A winding path that fills the square without crossing itself (an 8 × 8 path for blocks under 6 in, 16 × 16 from 6 in up) | Background fill, all-over quilting block by block |
Small blocks repeat to fill the sheet. A design bigger than a Letter page can't print on one sheet; the page says so and offers the SVG file instead, which you can tile in a program that prints posters or have printed at a copy shop at 100%.
Plain alternate blocks are where a block design shows best: try the star in the plain squares of a nine-patch throw, or set the feather wreath in the setting squares of an on-point quilt planned with the setting triangle calculator.
Common mistakes
- Printing scaled. A border stencil printed at 97% drifts by nearly 2 inches over a 60-inch side. Measure the check square.
- Marking the sides before the corners. Start at the corners so any easing happens in the middle of a side, where nobody looks.
- Using a permanent marker to trace. Use a marker that washes out, and test it.
- Choosing a design too busy for the fabric. On a busy print the quilting barely shows; save the feathers for plain or tone-on-tone fabric.
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